Review: The Summer Guest

The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book is about several people who are deeply involved in a summer camp in Maine. It covers generations. The book is told in alternative POVs between four people and culminates in a fifth voice, a child of one of the characters and provides a sort of epilogue.

One of the voices is the summer guest Harry, who is a very rich man. In the current time he comes this year to die at his favorite place. He also just bought the camp and left it in his will to a young man Jordan who works there, his voice is one of the POVs. This change of ownership, of course, causes some stirrings. The camp had been in the family for a very long time.

In addition, the book is also about the couple Lucy and Joe who own the camp and just sold it to Harry. Their daughter Kate is the final epilogue voice. Joe was drafted into the Vietnam war and his father who was wounded and disfigured from a previous war. He wanted, and perhaps forced, Joe not to go. Joe ends up being a draft dodger. There are consequences for this, and just as him and Lucy started being a couple.

The timeline for the book was back and forth, not linear. It took a bit to get settled into the story with the timeline and characters shifting. I listened to the audiobook version and there was a different narrator for each character, which helped to keep things straight.

The book was well done, but nothing spectacular. This also may have been his first novel.

Book rating: 3.5 stars

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Review: The Summer Guest

The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book is about several people who are deeply involved in a summer camp in Maine. It covers generations. The book is told in alternative POVs between four people and culminates in a fifth voice, a child of one of the characters and provides a sort of epilogue.

One of the voices is the summer guest Harry, who is a very rich man. In the current time he comes this year to die at his favorite place. He also just bought the camp and left it in his will to a young man Jordan who works there, his voice is one of the POVs. This change of ownership, of course, causes some stirrings. The camp had been in the family for a very long time.

In addition, the book is also about the couple Lucy and Joe who own the camp and just sold it to Harry. Their daughter Kate is the final epilogue voice. Joe was drafted into the Vietnam war and his father who was wounded and disfigured from a previous war wanted and perhaps forced Joe not to go. Joe ends up being a draft dodger. There are consequences for this, and just as him and Lucy started being a couple.

The timeline for the book was back and forth, not linear. It took a bit to get settled into the story with the timeline and characters shifting. I listened to the audiobook version and there was a different narrator for each character, which helped to keep things straight.

The book was well done, but nothing spectacular. This also may have been his first novel.

Book rating: 3.5 stars


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Review: The Summer Guest

The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: Interpreter of Maladies

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a collection of nine short stories. I found it mixed, a few I really enjoyed, while others not so much.

The characters in these stories are in the United States from India or Bangladesh. The stories explore the cultural aspects of the people while living in a different type of society. There is the juxtaposition of the way things are done in America to how these characters were raised.
I enjoyed the last story, The Third and Final Continent.A young man needs temporary lodging while he waits for his new wife to come to American and join him. He finds a room with an elderly woman, and he is very surprised when he finds out she is over 100 years old.

In the second story, When Mr. Pirzada came to Dine, is narrated by a child. Mr. Pirzada is now from Pakistan as the story takes place during the time of India being ripped apart. The family should now dislike and separate themselves from him as their home countries, but of course they do not. I thought this was one of the better stories as well.


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Review: Interpreter of Maladies

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: On the Calculation of Volume III

On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



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Review: On the Calculation of Volume II

On the Calculation of Volume II by Solvej Balle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



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Review: In Ascension

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Contrapposto

Contrapposto by Dave Eggers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: On the Calculation of Volume I

On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Seeing this book cover around made me intrigued. I hadn’t read anything about the book, other than it is a translation and knew there are several in this series. I was pleasantly surprised by the book.

Tara Selter was on a book buying trip for her business with her husband Thomas. During this time away somehow, she got stuck in November 18. The day keeps repeating itself. Tara doesn’t end up doing the same thing over and over, at least that is not the description in the novel.

One aspect of this book that I really enjoyed was the descriptions, the level of detail. It reminded me somewhat of Karl Ove Knausgård and his autofiction series My Struggle. However, this is entirely fiction.

The book is short, too short really. It ends with a little cliffhanger of sorts where I had to know what happened next. Happily, I had the next book, volume II, with me as I was travelling. I’ve already finished that and well into volume III. I find this series of short books intriguing and a bit addicting. Unfortunately, not all are translated into English just yet so after the fourth I am going to have to wait.

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Review: On the Calculation of Volume I

On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Seeing this book cover around made me intrigued. I hadn’t read anything about the book, other than it is a translation and knew there are several in this series. I was pleasantly surprised by the book.

Tara Selter was on a book buying trip for her business with her husband Thomas. During this time away somehow, she got stuck in November 18. The day keeps repeating itself. Tara doesn’t end up doing the same thing over and over, at least that is not the description in the novel.

One aspect of this book that I really enjoyed was the descriptions, the level of detail. It reminded me somewhat of Karl Ove Knausgård and his autofiction series My Struggle. However, this is entirely fiction.

The book is short, too short really. It ends with a little cliffhanger of sorts where I had to know what happened next. Happily, I had the next book, volume II, with me as I was travelling. I’ve already finished that and well into volume III. I find this series of short books intriguing and a bit addicting. Unfortunately, not all are translated into English just yet so after the fourth I am going to have to wait.

View all my reviews

Review: On the Calculation of Volume I

On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Seeing this book cover around made me intrigued. I hadn’t read anything about the book, other than it is a translation and knew there are several in this series. I was pleasantly surprised by the book.

Tara Selter was on a book buying trip for her business with her husband Thomas. During this time away somehow, she got stuck in November 18. The day keeps repeating itself. Tara doesn’t end up doing the same thing over and over, at least that is not the description in the novel.
One aspect of this book that I really enjoyed was the descriptions, the level of detail. It reminded me somewhat of Karl Ove Knausgård and his autofiction series My Struggle. However, this is entirely fiction.

The book is short, too short really. It ends with a little cliffhanger of sorts where I had to know what happened next. Happily, I had the next book, volume II, with me as I was travelling. I’ve already finished that and well into volume III. I find this series of short books intriguing and a bit addicting. Unfortunately, not all are translated into English just yet so after the fourth I am going to have to wait.


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Review: On the Calculation of Volume I

On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle
My rating: 0 of 5 stars



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Review: We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution

We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution by Jill Lepore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a massive book, detailed and covers two and a half centuries. It took me quite a while to read it, months. But I didn’t read this solely, as I could only manage parts at a time. Further in, I was able to read a full chapter in one session, due to the book progressing in time, until almost to today. These later chapters were closer to when I had more information and become more readable at length.

The book begins with a very close look at how the United States Constitution was created. It took many people throughout the colonies, and many discussions. Each state had to ratify the new constitution, and each had their own desires and amendments. Would amendments be able to be added or not was a discussion. Who presented what to the constitutional congress, what their state desired, and all these minute details were discussed in length. It was very much in the weeds.
After the constitution was adopted, then came the discussion about amendments. As the chapters progressed the amendments would arise around social issues, such as in the later era civil rights or women’s rights, etc.

The book perhaps is a bit like a history book for school. All the minute details about the U.S. Constitution and amendments were more than I really wanted to know. Yet, reading section by section the book seemed good enough to keep going, and ended up being quite a reading project for me. And since this year I wanted to spend time reading about the history of the United States, this book did help to fill in a gap of my knowledge.


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Review: We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution

We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution by Jill Lepore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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